Thursday, January 17, 2013

Change of Plans: I'm going to Arequipa!

Last
night I threw my laundry in the machine at the Hostel and sat down to read a
book. A few moments later I was angrily confronted by the proprietor's wife who
told me that the laundry was not free and that even if I paid her to do it she
didn't have space on the close line to dry my things. She then told me that she
had shut off the laundry machine and drained the water. So now I had a bunch of
soapy wet clothes.

I was not a very happy camper but I forced myself to
be calm and after giving her a few "tranquilo's", I told her that I was sorry
and that if she didn't want people using her washing machine that was sitting in
the middle of the common room that she should put a sign over it or something. I
eventually convinced her to turn the washer back on, despite her protests that
she couldn't dry my things out. I told her that I would come up with a
solution:

This
morning as I was getting ready to leave she came up to me and told me that I had
to pay for the laundry service.

In my mind I was thinking, "Laundry
"service"? Excuse me, I'm trying to remember what part of the process that you
actually performed. Ohh, that's right, nothing!" But, I shoved my anger down and
asked her how much she wanted. 10 Soles ($4.50). I almost laughed in her face. I
asked her if she thought that was a little bit expensive, considering that I had
done all of the labor. Nope. Eventually I just paid her and left. Hostels can be
so frustrating sometimes.

I found some street carts for breakfast and
just pulled up next to them and ordered while sitting on my bike. It was quite
nice, almost like the Peruvian version of Sonic's.

The
lady and her two sons had a bunch of freshly made sandwich's available. I had a
cheese sandwich, an egg sandwich, and a beef sandwich for 3 Soles. Combined with
a cup of lukewarm, overly-sugared, instant coffee for another Sole, and my
breakfast cost less than half of what my Laundry did.

I sat on my bike
and enjoyed my breakfast in the warm morning sun. The sandwiches were superb,
the coffee strangely good, and the service excellent. My feet never touched the
pavement the entire time. Everyone on the street was staring at me, the strange
bald, bearded gringo on the huge motorcycle I got one of the boys to take a
picture of me washing down my coffee.

After
breakfast I blasted out of town and found a good spot to pull over and adjust my
chain and front axle. After tightening the chain slightly, I went to adjust my
front axle.....and seriously ruined my day.

Using
my idiot strength, I managed to torque off one of the bolts on the right fork
that holds the front axle in place. I was instantly cursing up a storm and
having a minor panic attack, not quite sure what I was going to do next. I
eventually calmed down and tried to think rationally about my next move. There
wasn't anywhere nearby that could fix my problem, so I tightened the remaining
bolts, reinforced everything with a few zip ties, and decided to re-route to
Arequipa instead of Cuzco. I knew that there was a shop in Arequipa that rented
XR650L's and that they would probably have a mechanic that could help me out.

Arequipa was a long ways away. It was going to be a long day. I knew I
was going to have to ride hard and stop seldom if I wanted to make it there by
nightfall.

So, instead of climbing up into the mountains for a nice
leisurely stroll to Cuzco, I resumed my cannonball run down the Panamerican
Highway along the Peruvian Coast.

The
scenery remained quite barren and bleak. I spent a lot of the day simply tracing
the shore line. Not wanting to put any added stress on the remaining bolts that
were holding my axle in place, I passed up several nice opportunities to ride on
the beach. The temperature remained relatively mild, mostly due to the nice
breeze coming off the ocean.

I
made several 100 mile legs without getting off the bike; quite a challenge on an
XR. Due to a nasty head wind and the crappy Peruvian fuel, I burned through
nearly $40 worth of gas. Eventually boredom set in and I started messing around
with the camera.

I
passed quite a few small fishing fleets and eventually I had to stop and take a
quick picture of this one at anchor.

The
majority of the terrain was barren desert. However, at intervals the road would
cross a beautiful river valley. I love the contrast of a river valley cutting
through a desolate expanse of a desert; it's always so fascinating to see so
much green after only seeing shades of brown all day.

Eventually
the road left the coast and began climbing inland. Things started to cool off
and I had to pull over to get out my jacket.

As
I climbed higher, I started seeing what I thought was snow on the hillsides in
front of me.

However,
as I approached I realized that it was just sand.

After over 350 miles
of hard riding, I finally reached Arequipa in a light drizzle. I rode to the
center of the historic district and found a hostel for 30 Soles. The name of the
Hostel is "Hostal Sumay Wasy". The room is nice, the wifi works (sometimes),
they have parking for one or two bikes in the entry way, and they have showers
with lukewarm water. That's about all you can ask for.

Today
was the longest riding day I've had so far. Luckily, in Peru the roads have been
phenomenal and relatively free of traffic. Even so, I don't really enjoy doing
over 300 miles on the XR. If it were a big bore, multi-cylinder cruising machine
that could sustain speeds over 75 MPH for long durations, it wouldn't be so bad.
But puttering down desert straightaways at 62 MPH on that narrow dirt bike seat
all day can really cramp you up.

Tomorrow I have to go try and figure out
how to fix my front fork. I'm hoping that the solution is relatively simple. If
anyone is reading this and has a copy of the Honda Service manual with an
exploded view of the front fork, I would appreciate a copy of the picture!